A neural network is an interconnected group of artificial or biological neurons. It is possible to differentiate between two groups of neural networks: On the one hand biological neural networks, for example the human brain or parts thereof. On the one hand artificial neural networks which refer to electrical, mechanical or computational simulations or models of biological neural networks. There exist hybrids, incorporating biological neurons as part of electronic circuits.
Over the previous decades, computers and software have made great advancement. However and despite large investments, there are areas in which the human mind is far more efficient than a computer. For example, a human mind is able to instantly identify all sorts of objects, to speak fluently or to walk over all sorts of terrains.
“On Intelligence”, Jeff Hawkins, Sandra Blakeslee, 2004, Times Books, Henry Holt and Company, ISBN 0-8050-7456-2, particularly pp. 106 to 176, discloses that the human brain works fundamentally different than a computer. Hawkins et al. introduce a framework on how the human brain might function.